Toyota profit to be reduced by earthquake, president says

Toyota boss Akio Toyoda wants the company "to take leadership and help support the nation as much as possible."

TOYODA CITY, Japan (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. expects earnings will be reduced by the disruptions following Japan's record earthquake and tsunami on March 11, President Akio Toyoda said. The impact is difficult to estimate, Toyoda said here today.

The automaker is planning to resume all operations as soon as possible, he told reporters after speaking at an entrance ceremony for new employees at the company's headquarters.

The magnitude-9 quake off the coast of northeast Japan and the subsequent tsunami left more than 28,000 people dead or missing and forced Japan's automakers to close factories due to shortages of parts and electricity.

The nation's automakers are considering cooperating to save energy through measures such as adjusting production schedules, Toyoda said.

"I would like Toyota to take leadership and help support the nation as much as possible," Toyoda said.

Toyota on Feb. 8 said net income might rise 34 percent to 490 billion yen ($5.9 billion) in the year ended March 31, while sales were expected to increase 1.3 percent to 19.2 trillion yen.

The world's biggest automaker has said it lost 140,000 units of production from March 14 to March 26, citing a shortage of electronic parts, rubber and plastics. Toyota resumed output of three models at two factories on March 24, prioritizing hybrid models including the Prius gasoline-electric car. The automaker is still keeping 16 car plants in Japan shut.

Operating profit﻿﻿﻿

The company, which has two car assembly factories in Japan's northeastern region, will continue to produce in the area, Toyoda said.

All of the company's vehicles at Sendai port were swallowed by the March 11 tsunami, he said. Toyota's operating profit may be cut by at least 100 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March 31 and as much as 200 billion yen this fiscal year, said Koji Endo, an analyst at Advanced Research Japan.

Any impact on production overseas will further damp earnings, he said earlier this week. Toyota may delay the production of at least 500,000 vehicles in Japan because of a shortage of parts and electricity, Endo said.

The automaker has no plans to revise its global corporate vision that it announced last month, Toyoda said. The plan includes selling half its vehicles in emerging markets and rolling out 10 more hybrid models as part of efforts to make at least 1 trillion yen in operating profit by 2015.